Company predicts rise from dive in the deep

Submarine Australasia expects to list on the Stock Exchange's main board early next month with 10 million shares on offer, $700,000 in the bank and no debt.

The company will become the parent of Submarine Adventures, which this week unveiled its tourism and research submarine in Dunedin.

The vessel will be launched in Milford Sound at the end of the month.

Founder and managing director of Submarine Adventures, Philip Mladenov, described the day as amazing.

"It is real now. When it was in the United States we knew we had it but it didn't feel real. Now we can touch it. It is ours now."

The submarine, named Antipodes, attracted a lot of public attention at the unveiling.

And interest in the company was also high, said director John Reuhman.

It had taken six months to raise the initial $1.5 million through a private placement, with the Skeggs Group taking a 30 per cent stake.

There were 85 shareholders, split between Wellington and Dunedin, with Dunedin shareholders holding about 60 per cent of the company.

The board had decided to use the exchange's New Capital Market and had raised about a third of the planned subscription of $600,000.

The offer closed in two weeks, Mr Reuhman said.

Overseas interest had come from Germany, Alaska and the Netherlands as well as an Australian university making inquiries into how the submarine was built.

The company was already employing six people, and Mr Reuhman was optimistic staff would increase as business expanded.

The company had resource consents to operate two submarines in Milford Sound, three in Queenstown and was awaiting a decision for Doubtful Sound.

Other plans included establishing a deep-dive submarine manufacturing industry in Dunedin and a tertiary qualification in deep-diving, he said.

A submarine and associated barge would cost up to $5 million to build.

"There is huge potential. We haven't pushed the politicians yet. But as far as tourism and the knowledge economy goes, this thing is right in it," Mr Reuhman said.

The company would charge $495 a person for a trip in the tourist season. About 10,000 people a year would be carried, a very small slice of total visitor numbers to Milford Sound.

- NZPA